False start for Patriots in preseason opener

Friday

Aug 8, 2014 at 9:40 PMAug 9, 2014 at 5:35 PM

The vast majority of Patriots players who participated in the game no doubt would have preferred to have burned the film of Thursday night’s 23-6 preseason-opening loss to the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field.

By Glen FarleyGateHouse News Service

Watch the film?

The vast majority of Patriots players who participated in the game no doubt would have preferred to have burned the film of Thursday night’s 23-6 preseason-opening loss to the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field.

For a Brady bunch of reasons – not the least of which was the fact that the franchise quarterback was among a number of core players who sat this one out – the bad and the ugly far outweighed the good:

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Tom Brady took the night off; Ryan Mallett should have: A little more than 72 hours after the NFL Network’s Mike Mayock raved that when he watched Mallett at practice Monday he saw "a legitimate NFL starting quarterback," New Englanders saw the same guy they’ve seen each summer dating back to 2011.

And that’s not good.

Granted, his offensive line didn’t serve him well, but Mallett was equal parts unimpressive and uninspiring, his numbers (5-for-12 for 55 yards, a passer rating of 55.9) an accurate reflection of his inaccurate performance.

If part of the purpose in allowing Mallett to start and play the entire first half was to dangle him as trade bait, it failed miserably; this guy’s value has to have sunk to Felix Doubront depths.

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On the other hand, after struggling throughout training camp, rookie Jimmy Garoppolo came on in the second half and ran the offense with the confidence you hoped to see from the guy who’s in his fourth year in the system..

Bearing no scars from the struggles he’s endured in camp, Garoppolo injected life into an offense that was dormant with Mallett under center, exhibiting great pocket presence and touch in connecting on 9-of-13 passes for 157 yards and a touchdown while also scrambling once for 9 yards.

If Mallett’s performance was discouraging (and it was), Garoppolo’s was encouraging.

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Garoppolo’s primary batterymate was Brian Tyms, an undrafted free agent out of Florida A&M who has previously been unable to hang on with San Francisco, Miami and Cleveland and wasn’t even employed at the start of camp.

It may be a stretch to think that this is Tyms’ time, but five receptions in six targets for 119 yards and a TD for a guy with two career receptions for 12 yards in seven NFL regular-season games wasn’t a bad first impression on the latest team to give him a shot.

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Not a good debut for first-year offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo.

Most alarming was the fact that the problems weren’t confined to the interior of the line, where the Patriots did some mixing-and-matching with Jordan Devey and Josh Kline starting on either side of Dan Connolly, but extended out to left tackle Nate Solder, who was one of the night’s most egregious sinners (he was called for holding on the third play from scrimmage and later gave up a sack).

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With much being written and said about the league’s increased emphasis on illegal contact this year, it took Brandon Browner less than nine minutes to pick up a penalty for illegal contact that bailed the Redskins out of a third-and-12 and extended their first touchdown drive.

Given the level of contact on the play (not much), if officials are going to call things that closely, Browner, one of the most physical cornerbacks in football, is going to have to adjust his game dramatically.

OK, so that’s a stretch, and while it wasn’t all good (Butler took a senseless personal foul penalty), the rookie free-agent cornerback out of West Alabama was solid in coverage and showed good technique in a game in which he was credited with six tackles and two pass breakups on defense and another stop on special teams.

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Still on the subject of cornerbacks, it was a long night for Logan Ryan, who showed promise as a rookie last year. A breakdown between Ryan and safety Duron Harmon allowed Aldrick Robinson to turn a slant into a 10-yard reception from Kirk Cousins for the game’s first TD and he was far too loose in coverage in permitting the wide receiver to lift his team out of a second-and-10 situation with a 23-yard catch with the Redskins backed up at their own 1.

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While the negatives outweighed the positives – he lost a fumble on a kickoff, but was saved by an offside penalty against the Redskins, then later muffed a punt – 5-foot-7 Roy Finch did exhibit the type of burst that could aid the Patriots’ return game.

Of course, if he keeps putting the ball on the ground the burst will be a bust.

On a play that served as a microcosm of the Patriots’ night, Travis Hawkins, a rookie free-agent defensive back out of Delaware, touched the ball just once, returning a fourth-quarter kickoff 47 yards only to have it brought back due to a holding call against Michael Buchanan.

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